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Wrath of the Lich King made a number of fundamental changes to the game, many of which went through so many iterations that it can be difficult to get the facts. You can find a summary of these changes as related to the Restoration Druid in this extensive FAQ!

I was recently honored to have been interviewed by Lisa Poisso of WoWInsider for the 15 Minutes of Fame column. In it, I answer questions about why I believe certain people gravitate toward the healing role, what I predict for the future of Druids in Wrath of the Lich King, and my motivation for creating Resto4Life. Here’s a snippet from the article:

Who’s the healing flavor of the month right now? Why? Do you think that will change in Wrath?Though I don’t have any personal experience in Sunwell, my understanding is that there’s a lot of raid-wide "splash" damage going around. In this type of environment, smart targeting and AoE heals like Chain Heal and Circle of Healing really shine. With the addition of the 51-point Restoration talent Flourish and Paladins’ raid heal Beacon of Light, it’s pretty safe to say that we haven’t seen the end of this encounter dynamic.

Congratulations on the highlight! I 100% agree with your “silent hero” title, we healers all have our jobs, and if we do them well in raids people tend not to notice unless something disastrous occurs (and we pick them up and out of that disaster with outstanding HoT-tossing, lifebloom-stacking, swiftmending skills). While we may look like the broccoli that you see at the bottom of the pile at the supermarket, shrivelled and dead next to the rotten green onion and assorted moldy cauliflower, we are an invaluable force of nature! Thank you for encouraging me to switch my druid over to resto to join my holy paladin and keep supplying us with wonderful Wrath updates!

P.S. I find it hard to play my undead characters because their armor doesn’t show on their elbows or knees, I yearn for flesh over those areas but understand the reasons why it isn’t there.

While it may not seem like we’re much of a minority anymore, I think that’s partially because anyone who raids tends to eventually be in a position where there are a reasonable number of healers, tanks, and dps, so it all seems pretty normal. Aside from that, I’ve noticed that about half of our healers, while perfectly content healing, would rather be a different spec or a different class.

As far as the type of people who play healers (and want to), I’d pretty much agree. People appreciate someone who is good at what they’re supposed to do, even if it’s not really said, especially when their role isn’t considered as ‘fun’ by most. I believe that’s a significant portion of it – whether it’s explicitly said or not, as a healer (or a tank for that matter), you become someone who is geniunely desired and appreciated by others. I think that’s part of what’s drawn me to healing. I can’t speak for others, but it makes sense to me :p

Also, I see you played EQ, to which I can say bards and enchanters would fall into a similar boat with desirability due to being heavy support classes. Likewise, I’m drawn to those types of classes in games as well.

@Everyone: Thank you very much for the kind words! It was really an honor to have been asked, and Lisa asked some great questions! All around a lot of fun!

@Halfalthaia: It always makes me sad to hear someone say “we wiped because our healers couldn’t keep up.” And it’s natural instinct to want to say, “Well maybe if you tanked it faster, they wouldn’t have had so much trouble!” LOL … of course, I don’t say that. Over voice chat. ^_~

And yeah, what’s up with undead? Is Blizzard seriously trying to tell us that Undead characters rip the spine, elbows, and knees out of all their l33t epic gear? I think not!

@Megan: Ignoring your “advice” is often a wise decision.

@Nilianil: You make a good point about raiding guilds naturally coming to a good balance of Healers, DPS, and Tanks. This is all going to get thrown out of whack in the expansion though, because instance groups have a different percentage composition than 25-man raids. I imagine we’ll see a shortage of non-DK tanks for those groups. =)

In EverQuest 1, I played a Ranger, but I really regretted the choice after a couple of years. Unfortunately, rerolling in that game was too intensive, so I stuck with her. IN the end, though, it ended up being a good thing since the Nature-loving aspect of the class was one of the primary reasons I settled on Druid!